What is Safe With Us?
‘Safe With Us’ is a Royal College of Chiropractors initiative which aims to nurture the safety of care provided by chiropractors, and help practitioners reflect and learn from patient experiences in their own and other practices. Participation is free and some of the activities may be suitable for your CPD programme.
If you participate in the Safe With Us initiative, you will:
• Appoint a Patient Safety Lead
• Plan and run Patient Safety meetings
• Agree and implement a Patient Safety Incident Management Policy
• Tell your patients (if you wish to)
• Let us know about your Patient Safety activities and ideas which we will post on this website
How to Participate in the Safe With Us initiative
Safe With Us has a number of aims, as described below, and participation in the initiative involves meeting these aims. Helpful materials, as highlighted, are provided in the participation pack (RCC members must log in and then choose the relevant sub-menu item from the ‘Safe With Us’ menu to access the pack.)
1) To ensure an individual with a particular responsibility for patient safety (Patient Safety Lead) is identified in the participating practice:
The role of the Patient Safety Lead is detailed in the patient safety incident management policy template provided in the participation pack.
2) To facilitate regular practice meetings with a patient safety focus:
It is the Patient Safety Lead’s responsibility to plan and organise these meetings. A proposed meeting plan and PowerPoint presentation are provided on the enclosed CD to help the Patient Safety Lead with this. Further agenda ideas are provided for those who have already established such meetings in the past. CPD certificates, to be signed off by the Patient Safety Lead, can be edited and printed from the participation packfor those who participate in safety meetings. Such small-group activity falls into the category of patient care and learning with others.
3) To ensure routine recording and discussion of potential, near-miss or actual patient safety incidents occurring in the practice, and/or in other practices (the latter being identified through reference to CPiRLS and GCC fitness to practice reports):
This activity forms the main focus of the practice safety meetings.
4) To encourage reporting of local safety incidents to CPiRLS, thus enabling the whole profession to learn from shared experiences, as facilitated by the Patient Safety Lead:
A CPiRLS trigger list, which helps practitioners identify safety incidents, is available in the participation pack. A Safety Diary is provided in which all practitioners should be encouraged to note down all safety incidents as they happen during Patient Safety Week, and beyond, for discussion at a safety meeting and subsequent reporting to CPiRLS. A CPiRLS screensaver is also provided in the participation pack. All chiropractors in the practice may install the screensaver on their PC to provide a regular CPiRLS reminder (Note: this screensaver does not work on a Mac).
5) To help the participating practice implement a patient safety incident management policy:
A draft patient safety incident management policy is provided in the participation pack for consideration and modification as necessary. This draft policy incorporates the suggested responsibilities of the Patient Safety Lead.
6) To help the participating practice publicise its activities to patients (if wished) through provision of a poster and patient leaflets:
A poster and patient leaflets are provided as PDF files for local printing. The practice may also send details of any novel safety activities for publication on the RCC website to firstname.lastname@example.org, to whom any queries should also be directed in the first instance.